One Thing I'm Going to Do Differently...

-"im going to stop smoking weed and stay cleen and start skating again" KE, age 12

-"One thing I will do differently when I leave is make my life the best it can be. I'll change the way I treat people. I'll change people's lifes for the better. One love." RE, age 16

-"I going to stop running & hideing from my fears & I'm going to go to school & do well." AS, age 17

-"a thing Im going t do different when I leave is be a part of my family again. get my life on the right track and not to go with the guy who always put me down." MS, age 16

-"When I leave O&A I want to stop smoking bud and ciggarretes and start sk8ing again." LR, age 13

-"I am going to do better for my Mom and stop smoking weed." JM, age 14

-"I am not going to make the same decisions that got me put in here. I have already wasted enough time in my life." JC, age 17

Poem: "The Relationship with Carlos"

1. i thought you were so good to me
but you wernt.
2. i felt you were my everything
but you wernt
3. i thought you truly loved me
but you didnt
4. i thought you were going to be there for S
but you werent
5. S screamed for your attention
but you didnt
6. i cut myself badly
but you still didnt care

1. you took away my friends & family
but i didnt care
2. you took my sobriety & then my drugs
but i didnt care
3. you took my right to be a mom
but i didnt care
4. you would call me things like stupid or ugly
but i didnt care
5. you controled my whole life
but i didnt care
6. you kept me living on the street
but i still didnt care

1. we beat each other bloody
but we didnt care
2. we said we loved each other
but we didnt really
3. we screamed & yelled at each other
but we didnt care
4. we both wanted something eles
but we didnt care

dont do what i did!

SC, age 16

One Thing I'm Going to Do Differently...

-"When I leave O&A, I'm gonna hit the weights and stay off weed and cigarrettes." AM, age 16

-"When I leave... When I leave O&A I'm not going to make the same mistakes I did to come here." JP, age 15

-"When i get out i'm going to go to school get through high school at least and make me happy and my parents proud stop using drugs and stop hanging out with gang members." TW

-"One thing when I get out will be respect my Dad more & stay away from Drugs. I will also get my diploma and a steady job for my daughter and I!! RP, age 17

-"I will try to think befor I act. I will not steal stuff from stores or school. I wont get caught up in a mess. I will try really hard not to come back to Dt or O&A." AS, age 15

-"One thing I will do different when I leave O&A... is stay away from all the drugs and stop hanging around gangs. I'm going to go back to school and graduate. I'm going to do what my parents ask of me. I'm going to get a steady job so I can get all the freshest clothes and shoes." KP, age 17

-"One thing am going to do when i get out of O&A is change my life and behavier and go back to school and make new friends and stay on task and help out everyone that needs help from me and tell people what i have been throu and change my life and be a good citizen from now on while am in O&A." AM, age 13

Poem: "Free"

I see but I can't be free
in here I can't be me
like a dog in a cage
filled with rage
All I want is outta this cage
so let me out
and set me free
so I can show to you all
who I can really be

AC, age 17

"My Dream Job" --a persuasive writing assignment

My dream job is marine core

Dear Sarah, the reaons why you should take me for the marine core is because Ive been shooting guns my whole life so shooting a person wouldnt be real different then shooting an animal. And I also been blowing things up as ar as I can remember so I can blow things down and be in and out within 52 seconds and also lead the team in and out safly so thats why I would be a good candidate for your bissness spot so I hope you look into my request more. Thank you for your time.

TB, age 15

"My Dream Job" --a persuasive writing assignment

My dream job is fish & game officer

Dear Sarah,

I think I am a good candidate for this position. I have studied in science and biology. I have also been through the required amount of police academy. I think I would be great for this job, because I love the outdoors. I love science and I love working and protecting animals. I've also been around hunters and campers, I aalso am one myself so I know how they think and know when and where it all happens. Espessially potchers I have seen a lot of them in my time hunting and in the outdoors, but haven't been able to do anything about it but call someone to stop it. But by the time they got there, the potchers are long gone. So please give me this chance and opportunity to start saving and protecting the wild animals, and espessially the outdoors.

AC, age 17

"My Dream Job" --a persuasive writing assignment

My dream job is criminal psycologist

Dear Sarah
i feel i am more qualified then most for this job because i have all the proper schooling such as my doctoret witch i spent ten years & lots of money to educate myself for this job. i have also done my ful year of internship too. The reason i want this job is because i want to help instatutionalized people like my brothers to find the problum under there skulls & help fix it.

i am a caring person. all i want is to help these convicts succseed as functional members of soceity. So in the long shot i want a chance to change the world in some small way. so you should partake in my changing of the world.

SC, age 16

"My Dream Job" --a persuasive writing assignment

My dream job is to be a marines recon team leader.

Dear Sarah

I am a worthy candidate for the position as recon team member Because I can handle a weapon with utmost precision and accuracy. I am one with the shadows,  I stay undetected by any enemy trying to look for me. I can be a leader when it is required of me, also I am determined to get the job done correctly with as little or no mistakes and or injuries and casualties. One last thing is, when it comes down to it in hardcore point blank range combat I can keep a level head and get my men where need be. So please consider my name when picking worthy candidates for your job position.

S.N.

"My Dream Job" -- a persuasive writing assignment

My dream job is working where my dad works today and forever

Dear Sarah, I want to work at life time with my dad cause he works there and I want to work there cause its a lot of pay and everybody who workds there is awsome and extra jobs for way more money and everybody that are my dads friends and me whole works there. That my dream job is. and I want to be a DJ.

One Thing I'm Going to Do Differently...

-"When I leave O&A I would like to change my attitude towards everything! So basically just be a better person to be around." PM

-"When I get out of O&A im going to be there for my family and thank you for helping me better understand writing."  M

-"I will never come back & I will do great in school also use the tools I learn." JC

-"I want to change my anger problems so I dont come back." TH

-"Im going too stay way from all the dogs and old friends. in one week a life time can pass. in one day, familys shatter like glass. in one hour, time still moves too fast. in one sec, we make choices that wil last."

-"When I get out of O&A I am gonna stay away from drugs and not listen to bad influences and stay out!" TJ

-"Go to school and go to the DATC and get a masters or PhD in weilding." BA

-"One thing i will do when i leave this facility is be with mom more." WR

-"I am going to go back to high school and graduate so I can go to the UofU and be on the gymnastics team. I'm going to show my family the gratitude that I truly have and the appreciation I have for them." NH

"My Dream Job" -- a persuasive writing assignment

My dream job is to be a medical doctor.

Dear Sarah,

There are some reasons why I think you should hire me for this job. I am a very hard and dedicated worker. I go the extra mile to get the job done. I am a people person. People can talk to me and understand what I'm telling them, not like most doctors that toss out big words to sound smart. I am also a very caring person. I will put more than enough time into my patients. No patient will ever feel like there not being cared for. I'm not affraid to stitch someone up, blood doesn't bother me, I'm a very hands on person. If something needs to be done, you can count on me.

W.E.

"My Dream Job" --a persuasive writing assignment

My dream job is a shoe designer

Dear Sarah,
You should hire me for this job because I have some good ideas for this company an I know these designs that I have created will change the world. Each shoe that is made, is specifically made for each and ever left and right foot. But the real reason for my shoe designs are for the comfort and the aww that catches what the customer wants. My designs will cat the eye of the customer an I can guarentee the Benjamins of the mula!
My shoes are for comfortability and endurance for the long lasting, meaning the shoe was made to last long and stay strong but you will never ever need to buy another pair of shoes for the longest while. Also I have the skills to sketch any designs you want or need and I have the taste for styles.

SC, age 17

"My Dream Job" - a persuasive writing assignment

My dream job is a Dictator

Dear Sarah

Why should you hire me? Well allow me to complicate some reasons why you should hire me and not someone else.

1. I have experience working.
2. I am available 24/7 as well as short notice.
3. I work consistently under pressure.
4. I have study about this and I can offer you a great fit for things
5. I can boost the gross income by applying me knowledge to your job offer.

Sarah, let's be realistic here. I have what you want but I can only help you if you help me. :oD

J.S.

Fiction Writing Prompt: "3 Keys"

"You were just given three keys. 
They will open anything you want. 
Use your imagination! 

What do they open?" 

"1. The key to my mansion. 2. The key to my 2012 STi. 3. The key to my safe with a billion dollars." 

"1. Opens my closet so I can get my fresh clothes. 2. Door to my mansion on the top of a mountain. 3. Key to my  chest with magical items." 

"1. Key to safe with a hundred billion $$. 2. Key to my mansion in Hawaii. 3. Key to my million $$ yatte (yacht)." 

"1. to my mansion with a soccer arena inside. 2. to Six Flags Amusement park. 3. To my house in LA with babes." 

"1. Opens my Hummer. 2. Opens my big huge house. 3. Opens up my Foot Locker store." 

"Key 1. Opens my farrari f-50 with 2 12" speakers, custom vinyl with custom spinners, iPod with all my fav music. Key 2. Beach house in Malibu. Key 3. Opens my metal vault with 2 billion."

"Key to freedom. Key to a valtfull of money. Key to a Caddillac CTS V black with black rims that have a red going around the lip of the rim with a bumpin system and an iPod touch 64 g with all my favorite music with Selena Gomez sitting in the passenger seat." 

"1. to lamburgini diablo black gold neon with tinted windows. 2. Key to mansion on private island with lots of girls. 3. key to my club on Mars." 

"1. Key to perminent freedom. 2. Key to bank full of money. 3. Key to my private island."

"Space shuttle. Lambergini deablo. All human siclotys." 

"Key 1. Opens my Saleen Twin Turbo S7 jet black car. Key 2. Opens my huge mangen. Key 3. Opens my garage that has my jet, motorcycles, for wheelers, jet skies, the rest of my cars." 

"Room full of super powers. Utopia. The biggest & best stadium in the world." 

Everyone Has a Story: "A little part of my story"

I was born in Salt Lake City but I was raised in Mexico and were i was raised is not much but thats were im from but i have a lot of storys to tell about my life. i could prolly write a book but im a start by writting about wen i got jumped into my gang so i was around the age of 13 and it all started cuz of my family they are all gangsters so they started taking me out and do stuff that I was only gona get me into trouble but I did dem any way. but so wen i was 13 I got jumped by my cuzins and some other guys to this gang. Shortly after that I started getting into a lot of trouble I stopped going to school I started getting into alot of fights just cuz a stupid color and a lot of other stuff that in the end was not worth it but it took me a long time for me to realize that i guess its true what they say i found that girl i love and she made me change and thank god she is still with me but that's pretty much a little story of how i use to be in a gang and got out of it to change my future and my life... 

AP, age 17

Everyone Has a Story: "My Amazing Dog"

One day when I was watching a bruce lee movie and my mom was throwing my dads belongings in the back of his truck I heard a loud screach of a car slamming on its brakes, followed by the loud yelp or cry of a dog. Frantically I jumped up from the couch to look for my dog Buster, with no sign of him, I bolted out front. To my horror I seen my dog pinned under a vehicle with neibors and family standing around. I then yeled to lift the car off him so we tryed our best with no luck when a massive Soman man stopped his van to then lift the car enough for my broken dog to drag himself free. He had broken his lower back and was paralized from the mid back down. He was taken to the vet and put down due to severe injuries. We cremated him and had his paw print taken and to this day I often think about my amazing dog Buster.

SN, age 17

Everyone Has a Story: "Scouts and Me"

One day me and my scout troop decided to go on a scout camp to heart lake in the mountains as part of the trip we decided that we weren't going to bring sleeping bags or tents. we were just going to use tarps and ropes for shelter and to sleep in. So when we get up there we tie the tarps in a slanted position on top of some trees so that it would keep rain off us and that was about it, there were no walls around us except one facing the exit of the camp, that looked like a slash "l" and we used the other tarps as sleeping bags. Well at night after going fishing and cooking fish over an open fire we all started to fall asleep, there were about 4 people under each tarp, and my group we stayed up and we talked quietly then we started to nod off and right before we fell asleep we hear this amazingly loud rumbling and the ground shaking going BOOM! BOOM! we thought at first it was a minature earthquake, but it kept going in that patter, and it kept getting closer and louder so we were like someone go check what it is then I look out and see a huge bear just standing in our camp, looking around. apparently it smelt the fish but we were all helpless if that bear decided to attack no tent walls nothing. Amazingly it just wandered away and then the scout masters came out with there guns to make sure everyone was safe. And that's my story! :o)

M.J., age 17

Everyone Has a Story: "Out of the Box"

Once i got in the system and got locked up everything changed for me. The first time i got caught up was like the whole world came down on me and i felt like crap. When i first got locked up i didn't know what was going to happen next and was scared that i wasn't going to go home and that i was going to stay longer. But once i left and went home i didn't care and was like "that was nothing" so then i started getting in trouble more til i finally got in to much trouble and had the possibilyty that i wasn't going home and got into a program that could help me with my issues and problems so it did help me get my head straight and set my goals together and get my Education back and have more respect for my family and future so i won't be in a box and have a family.

A.R., age 17

Class Poetry: "The world doesn't understand"

The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
And they never will, for you see we can
never truly understand each other unless you
feel the same pain. Maybe then we can all
be brothers.

JP, age 16


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
Smiling on the outside crying on the out
but I refuse to sit and pout
on the inside. I let out a real loud shout
Still figuring out what this lifes about
My life takes a whole new route
My lady two months pregnant with my baby
and it so crazy but I've been raised a G
The heat has got the best of me that was
obviously not my destiny. So before it end with
rest in peice I thought of my neice and I know
she be there at least better than any drag all I
gotta do is give her a hug. No long feel the need
to smoke any week. Yes indeed all I need is my
family.

CM, age 16


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
I want to do right but dident now how
to do it. I cant sit here and hurt
my fam. I can't and wont be the
bad guy. Im gonna do whats
right being with my family is worth
it. not getting into trouble. I rather
do the right thing not the bad thing.
I wanna get out and do whats right.

FC, age 13


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
A confused kid who doesn't understand what he has
oppurtunitys giving to him
but he throws them in the trash
but when the day comes he will show you all
that he isn't a kid who crumples and falls.

AR, age 17


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
I don't even no my self any more
now I em lock up doing the
rong things. Grandma I em so
sorry that you have to see me
like this. I never want you
to see me lock up. I love you
and I miss you. I em trying
to make it right.

MN, age 15


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
All they see is the outside, never looking in
Don't ask me why. But I wish they would
look a little deeper and try to help me out
while I self destruct into a million pieces
then I won't be able to bounce back again
so help me now I save from a gruesome
end and I will tag along writing with my
pen all the things I can win if I set
my mind in motion.

SN, age 17


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
I yurn to be free
Just the world and me
Everyone judges what they see
but they don't know me.

RE, age 16

Class Poetry: "The world doesn't understand"

The world doesn't understand
what's going on in me
But the only one that does
isn't always around to talk to me
So the young man that has no body
goes out in the street
He is always running on his feet, packin heat
running from the police this is why
this kid shouldn't be on the street.
Because he is always running on
the street on his feet packin heat
while he's running from the police.
But then once he is gone to DT
the person to talk to gets on their
feet to look for him on the street
But he isn't there an now he feels defeat.

GL, age 16
------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
But yet everyone thinks their better
than me, I'm told I'm angry
I'm told I'm hurt And I don't disagree
but look me in the eye and
tell me I don't have a reason
to be, I try so hard to fake it
Just to try and make it
But I just can't shake it
The feeling that the world doesn't
understand what's going on in me.

ZH, age 17


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
life has struggle we need to overcome.
I have faith one day I will succeed.
I've made bad choices but I'm changing
my ways. No more brick walls or program
clothes. It's my time to shine and get back
on my grind. I ain't talkin bout hustlin, I'm
talkin bout a job I will enjoy and that I
have worked hard for. Hustlin is easy and
quick but how all I see is brick and I
ask myself "Wess good now?"
I start today by changing my ways.
Money is money but I got to make it
the right way.

TP, age 17


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
tell me do you see me or do you
see what appears to be me?
Do you see a confident young lady or
an overly compulsive young layd
Do you see Beauty or a beast
I know the world doesn't understand me
Because I don't even understand me.

SC, age 16


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
I feel sad, like I'm the one who is to suffer or
pay for that mans wrong doings. I"ve lost everything,
How can I cope, when sometimes the ones who ment
me harm are those that said "I love you." When fear
is my friend, I feel like it but don't act. I always was
the one to protect the little ones. And I'll always
remember I'm the survivor and I get to tell the
story. But what happens when that storyes at its end?

AS, age 16


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
I live in a pineapple under the sea,
a lonely starfish lives next to me.
We stay up all day and party all night
Until Sarah's class comes and gives us a fright.

MT, age 16


------------------------------------------------------
The world doesn't understand
What's going on in me
I live in a rock under the sea, an annoying
sponge lives next to me, we stay up all day
and party all night until Sarahs class comes
so we hurry and write.

JC, age 17